Chat

HotMic provides a real-time chat system for live broadcasts. Chat is available to viewers in your iOS, Android, and web applications, and can be customized with your brand's fonts and color scheme via Custom Themes.

Architecture

Chat messages are delivered via the Platform API using a polling-based approach (updates every 3 seconds). This ensures reliable delivery even at high viewer counts. Messages appear instantly for the sender (optimistic updates) while being confirmed by the server in the background.

The chat UI uses a high-performance virtual list that efficiently handles thousands of messages.

Chat Features for Viewers

Messaging

Text messages — Standard chat messages visible to all participants.
Emoji support — Emoji picker available within the chat input.
Mentions — Tag other users with @username. Mentioned users see their name highlighted.
Replies — Reply to specific messages for threaded context.

Reactions

Viewers can react to the stream with emoji reactions (like, love, laugh). Reaction counts are tracked and displayed in real time.

Chat Features for Creators & Admins

Creators and admins have all viewer capabilities plus additional controls:

Message Management

Pin message — Highlight an important message at the top of the chat. One pinned message at a time.
Unpin message — Remove the pinned message.
Delete message — Remove a specific message (with confirmation).
Clear all chat — Remove all messages (with confirmation).

User Management

Block user — Prevent a user from chatting in the current stream.
Invite as guest — Invite a chat participant to join the broadcast via Guest Call-In.
Assign moderator — Grant a trusted user moderator permissions.

Delta-based polling ensures only new messages are fetched on each update cycle.
Message deduplication prevents duplicates when optimistic updates overlap with server confirmations.